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Wednesday May 7, 2025 | Volume 150, Issue 19

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Dallas debuts challenging, lesser known tale from Anne Frank By DAVID HAYES I-O Editor

Most audiences within the theater and literary world are familiar with the tale of Anne Frank thanks to her diaries that survived World War II that went on to detail a normal teenager’s life before and during occupied Nazi Germany. However, few have heard the tale as told by her two best friends. Dallas High School’s Theater Program is bringing that story to its stage this week with “And Then They Come For Me: Remembering the World of Anne Frank” by James Still. “We’ve wanted to do this play for a really long time. I think I saw this play 15 years ago at the Oregon State Thespian Conference performed by Ashland High School. It took my breath away,” said Blair Cromwell, DHS theater program director. In 1996 producers filmed interviews with two holocaust survivors, both with connections to Anne Frank - Ed Silverberg, Anne’s boyfriend who she nicknamed Hello, and Ava Schloss, both survived the holocaust. During the war, Cromwell explained, the three were all just friends, 15-year-olds, hanging out. The interviews were transformed into a play, interspersed with video footage of the survivors speaking. “Then as they’re telling the story of what it was like in that part of

Homelessness count highlights urgent challenge, clear signs of progress Staff REPORT

she went through so much trauma and was still able to talk about it, not scared. She’s ready to tell her story, make it known,” Chancery said. Nunez said the audience should really enjoy the production as it will leave them something to think about when it’s over. “I think it is a little bit tricky, obviously because it covers a very hard subject. So it is a very

The Mid-Willamette Valley Homeless Alliance has released results from the 2025 Point-inTime (PIT) Count, offering a detailed snapshot of homelessness across Marion and Polk Counties — and showing both rising need and real gains in housing outcomes. This year’s count identified 2,166 individuals experiencing homelessness, including 953 unsheltered residents. One of the most urgent findings: 47% of those counted were experiencing homelessness for the first time, underscoring the growing pressure on working families, youth, and seniors amid a housing market that continues to strain household budgets and community resources. Yet despite these challenges, the region has made substantial progress. In the past year alone, over 600 households have

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The cast of Dallas High School’s theater program rehearse a scene from “And Then They Come For Me: Remembering the World of Anne Frank” debuting this week. history, the play takes off. We see those stories with the actors. It keeps going back and forth between the two,” Cromwell said. She said the Dallas theater program has wanted to do it for a long time, but couldn’t due to a limitation in the school’s ability to deal with some technological demands. “You have to have all this video footage, and you’ve got to time it and have to have the right projection system,” Cromwell. In addition, it took a confluence of the right technology and a troupe

of actors who had leveled up their skills to take on the serious story set amidst the holocaust. Sophomores Jayden Chancery portrays Ava and Eli Nunez is Ed during their younger years. Chancery said it took a lot of research by the cast and personally to properly bring the true story of the three youths and their families to the stage. “I think everything about her (Eva) is fascinating. She’s incredibly strong. It’s really impressive to hear her talk about it and realize

Sun shines down on second year of Dallas Farmers Market out in a sugar pea costume, because “Pretty Peas, we want people to come to the market.” For the kickoff on May 3, there were 17 What a difference a year makes for the vendors, six new, which Slawosky plans to Dallas Farmers Market. Last year, it debuted keep consistent throughout the season. She during a downpour of rain and blustery winds. said they’re keeping the application process This year, the sun was out with only a hint of open throughout the season as there’s plenty cool breeze to greet a wider selection of venof space to expand for more vendors. dors stretched down the courthouse square. Overall, the Dallas Farmers Market will “It’s so exciting. There’s sunshine. You can have 12 new vendors joining as the season actually see shadows. I’m very much looking progresses, including some local farms. forward to having to wash our produce in the “Last year, people were really excited, they sink rather than before we get it back in the were just hoping to see some more veggies,” car,” said Mikayla Slawosky, Dallas community development coordinator. She was decked See MARKET, page A2 By DAVID HAYES I-O Editor

PHOTO BY DAVID HAYES

Nikita Vincent and Monmouth Mayor Cecilia Koontz cut the ribbon May 3 at Main Street Park to kick off the inaugural Cultural Harvest Collective, a farmers market catering to BIPOC vendors.

Monmouth’s Cultural Harvest Collective debuts new home for BIPOC vendors By DAVID HAYES I-O Editor

PHOTO BY DAVID HAYES

Rick Ogle pitches his locally churned Cream Honey to potential buyers at the Dallas Farmers Market that saw its second season kick off May 3.

IN THIS ISSUE Voices Corrections Obituaries Puzzle Solutions Social Public Records Classifieds Puzzles

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Nikita Vincent, raised by her grandmother, a business teacher, remembers growing up in church. “For me, I grew up in Tigard and Tualitan, there was this feeling every Sunday of getting out of church and being with community,” Vincent said. She wanted to recreate that sense of community within her latest project, Cultural Harvest Collective, that debuted May 4 at Main Street Park in Monmouth. It’s a vendor’s market designed to attract underrepresented people of color a place to sell their wares. “That’s why I wanted to do a BIPOC (black, indigenous, people of color) vendor market

because I really feel when I moved down here to the Mid Willamette Valley that there was really good opportunity to get people of color in the area we could all gather and all come together in a community on a Sunday,” Vincent said. The Cultural Harvest Collective kicked off with a ribbon cutting with Vincent and Monmouth Mayor Cecilia Koontz holding the oversized scissors. Koontz said it was great to see the inaugural event after a test run of “pop up” events last year. “Last year, (Vicent) did a pilot just to see how it would go. A small group but really See BIPOC, page A2

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